What are the responsibilities and job description for the System Engineer position at Catapult Federal Services?
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Work Arrangement: Remote/Hybrid (if local to Scottsdale, AZ)
Clearance: Top Secret (required)
Overview
We are seeking a Tracking Systems Engineer to support a Space Force mission under the Space Development Agency (SDA) Ground Management Infrastructure (GMI) program. This role supports the development, integration, and deployment of ground operational systems used for satellite tracking and mission execution. The ideal candidate has strong systems engineering experience and exposure to space or ground-based mission systems.
Responsibilities
- Decompose mission-level requirements into system architectures, interfaces, and detailed designs
- Support system design, integration, verification, and validation activities
- Participate in requirements analysis, trade studies, and performance evaluations
- Support ground system design for satellite tracking, scheduling, and situational awareness
- Assist with ground-to-satellite communications and mission data transport
- Support pre-planned and ad-hoc scheduling operations
- Contribute to cloud-based system and microservice architecture designs
- Collaborate with DevOps teams on automation, deployment, and CI/CD pipelines
- Apply cybersecurity best practices and support compliance with standards such as NIST and ISO 27001
- Document system designs, configurations, and operational procedures
- Work closely with multidisciplinary engineering teams and stakeholders
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering or a related STEM field
- 5 years of relevant experience, or a Master’s degree with 3 years of experience
- Strong understanding of systems engineering principles and methodologies
- Experience with systems design, integration, and validation
- Familiarity with Agile development environments preferred
Preferred Experience
- Ground system design or scheduling
- Satellite tracking or mission design
- Ground-to-satellite communications
- Space mission data transport and analysis
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Microservice architectures and virtualization technologies
- Networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP)
- Linux and/or Windows operating systems
- Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) using tools such as CAMEO or MagicDraw
- Programming or scripting experience with Python, Java, or MATLAB
- Familiarity with DevOps tools such as Ansible, Puppet, Chef, Terraform, or CloudFormation
- Experience with simulation and modeling tools such as STK
Security Requirements
- Top Secret clearance required